Impact of knowledge and attitude on health worker’s preparedness towards M-pox treatment and control: A cross-sectional study

M-pox outbreak continue to put pressure on healthcare systems across LMICs. Healthcare workers (HCW) face the highest exposure risks, meanwhile there exists knowledge and attitude gap affecting preparedness for optimum treatment and control. The study assessed the impact of knowledge and attitude on health worker’s preparedness associated with treatment and control of M-pox infection in hospital setting. A facility-based cross-sectional survey was carried out among HCW in selected hospital setting. A 21-item questions adopted from United States CDC standard questionnaire on M-pox was used. A complete enumeration was used to recruit 443 consenting HCW. Descriptive statistics, regression model and moderation analysis were used in as statistical at 0.05 significance level. The descriptive composite score suggest that preparation was ranked the highest followed by attitudes and a fairly good level of knowledge. Thus, respondents were better prepared for M-pox infection control than their attitude and knowledge. The overall model was significant (F = 3.790, p = 0.002), indicating that profession (β = 0.163, p = 0.002) and gender (β = -0.128, p = 0.009) were significant predictors of preparedness. The primary moderating effects indicated that both knowledge (β = 0.7927, p < 0.001) and attitude (β = 0.7678, p < 0.001) were significant contributors to healthcare preparedness. Findings highlight the need to intensify education on M-pox infection control and balanced interventions that do not only strengthen knowledge and attitudes toward M-pox infection control but also translate them into effective preparedness strategies.